J.T. Lambert students have it down to a science

JT Lambert Intermediate students showed their creativity with science that helped advance them into this weekend's statewide competition.

SUSAN JORSTAD

J.T. Lambert Intermediate students showed their creativity with science that helped advance them into this weekend's statewide competition.

Among the projects, they played a duet on PVC pipe drums that they constructed to be perfectly on pitch, built a boomilever out of balsa and bass wood that can support more than 500 times its own weight, and designed a helicopter out of balsa, mylar ad music wire, to fly and remain aloft for more than two minutes on rubber band power.

These are among the 23 science challenges taken on by the school's Science Olympiad team, which has spent countless after-school and Saturday hours preparing for the rigorous academic state-level competition, being held today at Juniata College. Fifteen students in grades six to eight excelled at regionals held at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus last month, earning myriad first- and second-place finishes, and will now compete in the middle school "B" division.

Each student can compete in a maximum of four events. They range from building working machines and weight-bearing bridges to written knowledge exams and on-site problem solving.

"Most of the events have two students competing," explained Sheila Bove, science and gifted support teacher at J.T. Lambert, who has been coaching Science Olympiad for 12 years. "Mission Impossible and Experimental Design each have three people. And we can bring two students to do trial events — Geologic Mapping and Green Generation."

Before becoming a teacher, Bove worked as an exploration geologist, locating oil drilling sites. The maps she saved have proven useful for familiarizing team members with geologic mapping.

Using simple machines

Mission Impossible uses simple machines to complete a given task. Students recently decided to use K'nex to get higher lift, connecting the circuitry to assemble a small battery-powered motor.

"It's kind of like a chain reaction," sixth-grader Michael Sezen said. "You start with dropping a quarter "» finally, it lifts a platform that goes over the entire device. It all takes about three seconds. A longer time is better. We're trying to get it closer to 60 seconds."

One of the trickier events — "Write It, Do It" — requires a student to study a given design and write detailed instructions for a second student to re-create.

"Then the writers leave the room and they take away the model," said eighth-grader Stephanie Sezen, older sister of Michael. He is partners with her on the project that they also work on at home. "You're not allowed to look at or talk to your partner (while exchanging places in the room)," Stephanie said. "Then the doers enter the room and are given mixed materials — legos, K'nex, marshmallows, pipe cleaners — and they build the model."

Then there's the Sound of Music project.

"Sound of Music required us to come up with a design for an instrument," said Carissa Root, who is competing in the category with fellow eighth-grader Johanna Herb. "We decided on PVC pipe drums. Once we got those built, we chose our songs, and now it's a matter of practicing (playing). The scientific part of it has to do with how the instrument makes the sounds and the scientific principles behind it."

The pair finished first in their category in regionals.

Powered by mousetraps

Mousetrap Vehicle, yet another building event, requires students to design a simple vehicle powered by two mousetraps. The time challenge is to get the vehicle to accelerate quickly and travel a distance of eight to 12 meters. Making accurate predictions and calculations before and during competition is key, as eighth-graders Nick Frassinelli and Kasie Berkowitz know, having placed second at regionals.

In Keep the Heat, students construct a box in which they'll house a given quantity of water heated to between 60 and 90 degrees Celsius. They have to predict the water temperature at the end of the elapsed time in the insulated box. Points are awarded for heat retention as well as accuracy in prediction.

"The competition is two parts," explains sixth-grader Austin Possinger, who along with Frassinelli placed third at a recent science invitational. "We have to take a (written) test about thermodynamics — heat and how it moves. For the second part, you build a device inside a box that can insulate a beaker of water. We create graphs from data (trial runs) so at the competition we can pretty accurately predict temperatures. Ours is insulated with felt and polyester batting and cardboard, lined with wax paper to protect the wood box from moisture."

Building levers

In Boomilever, students create a boomilever, attached to a wall by one or two mounting bolts; a gradually increased load is suspended from its end, with the goal to build as light a lever as possible, to support the most weight for its mass.

Michael Sezen and sixth-grader Anum Khawaja have each built — and snapped — more than 10 boomilevers in the course of prepping for competitions. The two took first place at regionals.

"It's called destructive testing," explained assistant coach Lachlan Peeke, also a guidance counselor at J.T. Lambert. Peeke's sons, Lachie and Charlie, compete in the same event for the East Stroudsburg South High School team. "It takes about four hours to build it really well, and maybe two minutes to crack it (during testing)."

"One of the big challenges is how do you get 15 kids to cover all the events," Peeke said. "As a team, you can't become complacent, because the events change. Over the last few years, we went from Elevated Bridges to Towers and now to Boomilevers. It will eventually go back to Elevated Bridges, but the rules will change. It gives lots of opportunities for the kids to develop skills they wouldn't otherwise get in the classroom."

Received a grant

This year, the JTL team was awarded a $2,100 Summer of Innovation grant through NAS, to encourage student involvement in STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The grant helped the school to afford supplies for the building projects and to sponsor several Saturday building events last fall as an introduction to any interested students.

"The events rotate every year, so it's somewhat new each year, and prevents any one team from having an advantage over the others," Bove said. "They become friends with kids from other teams. We stay at the same hotel for competitions and Science Olympiad has a website where the kids can chat online with other kids.

"It's great to see students that work hard and then experience success," Bove said. "State is much more intense competition; you're not the only team improving."